Manus claims to fail: PNG

Political editor, The Age

Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister has pre-empted decisions on the status of asylum seekers held on Manus Island, saying "a good majority" of those interviewed are not genuine refugees.

Peter O'Neill has also made plain that PNG will resettle only some of those whose refugee claims are recognised, insisting other countries in the region should "carry the same burden as we do".

But Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, visiting PNG, could not nominate a single country that has indicated it will take refugees from Manus, where around 1300 asylum seekers are being held. Not one refugee status determination has been completed since the first asylum seekers were sent there in November 2012.

Mr Abbott accepted that it might be hard for PNG to take all whose claims were recognised and said Australia was "continuing to work with other countries in our region to ensure that people don't come to Australia if they arrive illegally by boat".

Advertisement

As the two leaders met and vowed to "stay the course", journalists were given access for the first time to the controversial centre, where many of the asylum seekers pleaded for their freedom.

The journalists entered the centre with the approval of PNG judge David Cannings, who is investigating human rights after an asylum seeker was killed and scores were injured, allegedly by PNG nationals employed by the centre's security contractor.

Mr O'Neill made a fleeting reference to the violence, saying he regretted "instances of late", but gave no indication of when a police investigation would be complete.

While legislation allowing for resettlement in PNG will not be ready until May and remains contentious, a defiant Mr Abbott said Australia could best assist PNG "in ensuring people found not to be refugees are swiftly repatriated".

"This is the bottom line: if you arrive illegally by boat in Australia you will never permanently settle in Australia because, as long as there is this prospect of permanent resettlement, there is the risk that illegal boats will keep coming," he said. Mr O'Neill recommitted to the centre despite international agencies - including the United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, and Amnesty International - raising concerns about conditions in the centre, the state of processing and the conditions that might be attached to resettlement.

It was not clear on what Mr O'Neill based his claim that most of those processed were not genuine refugees, given that the legislative framework for determining refugee status and resettlement has not been finalised.

In a statement that will concern the UNHCR, Mr O'Neill said the absence of legislation was not an impediment to decisions.

"Interview and processing of refugee people at Manus is now taking place as we speak," he said.

"Those proven to be not genuine refugees will be moved on as quickly as possible and those who want resettlement will be resettled under our legislative structure."

Before a PNG official said the leaders would take no more questions on Manus, Mr O'Neill said some communities in the country had offered to take part in a resettlement program.

"It is pretty hard to speculate when we don't precisely know the actual number of people that we are talking about. We expect it to be less because people are expected to go home," he said.

"Many of them now that have been processed, a good majority of them, are economic refugees. They are not genuine refugees. So, as such they will be sent back to the country of origin."

The leaders were talking after they met at PNG's Parliament House and signed an economic co-operation treaty.